{"id":15064,"date":"2012-03-16T10:08:01","date_gmt":"2012-03-16T15:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=15064"},"modified":"2012-02-09T10:10:08","modified_gmt":"2012-02-09T15:10:08","slug":"brock-hosts-real-life-guitar-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2012\/03\/brock-hosts-real-life-guitar-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock hosts real-life guitar heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pavlo,

Pavlo, Rik Emmett and Oscar Lopez are playing at Brock on April 5.<\/p><\/div>\n

One is a Greek guitarist with a Mediterranean sound who gives out a guitar at every show.<\/p>\n

Another is known in the hard rock world as the lead singer, guitarist and chief songwriter for the classic Canadian band Triumph.<\/p>\n

The third is a high-energy Latin guitar player known for his unpredictable performances.<\/p>\n

Together, they are known as PRO, a collective that has produced a Juno-nominated album. The trio will perform its final show<\/a> on April 5 at the Sean O\u2019Sullivan Theatre.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a show guaranteed to be as eclectic as the act itself, says Rik Emmett<\/a>, Triumph veteran and adjunct professor at Humber College. PRO is Emmett, Greek artist Pavlo<\/a> and Chilean acoustic player Oscar Lopez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty entertaining,\u201d Emmett says. \u201cThere are a lot of fairly goofy slapstick things going on. It\u2019s a nice night out, and I think everyone has a really good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto-based Pavlo formed PRO two years ago. He admired the collaboration of guitarists John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola and Paco de Lucia and wanted to form a similar group. He, Lopez and Emmett met at his mother\u2019s house in the Don Mills area, where his mom brought out \u201ca feast for a thousand,\u201d Pavlo recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ate. We drank. We tested it to see if we gelled together,\u201d he says. \u201cAfter 10 minutes of play, it was obvious that we had a really great synergy.\u201d<\/p>\n

PRO recorded Trifecta<\/em> and embarked on a 65-city tour. As far as Pavlo knows, the Centre for the Arts<\/a> show will be the last ever. It will be a \u201cvery sad night,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love these men dearly. They\u2019re a generation ahead of me, so I grew up listening to them as a fan. The year and a half we toured together, I probably improved as a guitar player tenfold. They brought an incredible wealth and experience and I was like a sponge.\u201d<\/p>\n

They all have their trademarks. Pavlo has his own line of guitars and gives away one per show, either to a fan offstage or an audience member during the show, usually through a ballot. \u201cI\u2019ve never had to change strings in all my years,\u201d he says. \u201cI just change my guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopez is \u201ca wild card,\u201d says Pavlo, who also owns a winery in Kingsville, Ont. \u201cYou never know what\u2019s going to come out of his mouth. Rik is the professor, and I\u2019m just happy to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emmett has taught songwriting and the music business at Humber since 1999. But his resume goes back much farther. Emmett formed Triumph in 1975, a band that released 10 studio albums and four live albums throughout. Its singles include \u201cFollow Your Heart,\u201d \u201cHold On\u201d and \u201cLay It On the Line.\u201d Outside of Triumph, Emmett has released 17 live and studio albums.<\/p>\n

Having spent years in Triumph, Emmett says he always welcomes the chance to show off his versatility.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have this kind of knowledge of me,\u201d he says. \u201cSome say \u2018Weren\u2019t you the guy in the \u201880s who jumped around in spandex pants?\u2019 After decades in music, I\u2019ve been a lot of things to a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to his collaborators, Emmett says Pavlo is \u201cvery pragmatic. Very pull-up-by-the-boostraps. I really get along with that type of person.<\/p>\n

Lopez is \u201can undisciplined kind of character\u201d who is full of passion, says Emmett, who recently recorded the album Recovery Room 9<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Tickets are $49. Order them through the Centre for the Arts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRO, a Juno-nominated trio, will perform its final show on April 5 at the Sean O\u2019Sullivan Theatre. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[90],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15064"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15064"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15067,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15064\/revisions\/15067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}